Union
by ReceiverOfWisdom302
Summary: War has always united humanity, just as well as it has always torn it apart. Lives are either spent or wasted. In other words 's layout drives me insane but I'm uploading this here. Try my ao3 account for more. If you don't know about Halo, don't shy away, a lot is explained throughout this and the characters are likely just as clueless.
1. Debrief

Years of military training had them saluting smartly, fluidly throughout the crowd as soon as the first individual gave indication that they had laid eyes on her.

She approached the podium with a quick gait, appropriate for the stern concentration that washed over the bunch, buckling down any stray jittered nerves with a paralyzing appreciation for the sheer air of authority that she carried with her.

Fifteen reasonably preserved Spartans stood before her unwavering, hailing to the unnamed inspection of each and every standing body at her service.

Having just arrived from hovering over an indignant ODST platoon, Kuvira could not have been more pleased with the amount of respect and decency she was given upon arrival.

As she swept her gaze over the lot for the umpteenth time, not even as little as a soldier mouthing words to another crossed her vision.

Disciplined, faithful, deadly.

As far as those above her command were concerned; hers. For the time being.

It was enthralling, daresay breathtaking, to have such specimens under her hand. For all the tales of grandeur that caressed her attention, fifteen (supposedly from the second augmented company) of these super-soldiers was nearly too good to be true.

She yearned to see them all in action.

When Kuvira gave the slightest perceptible nod of her head, dismissing their attentive stances, each one of them sat down, hardly missing a beat. A slighter chill surrendered along her spine.

After a few stagnant moments, a smaller podium-like stand a foot away from her flickered to life.

A holographic being blipped before their eyes and stood along the light-rimmed circular top of the cylinder capsule. Proud and yet reserved, the AI sported the form of a female huntswoman clad in furs. Supposedly Nordic language creased along what leather armour was visible in her chosen form, and she seemed at ease, hands catching their place at her hips while shimmering red and wild hair was attemptedly tamed into two joining braids that bonded down her back. Her attention, unlike the rest of the room's, seemed focus on some dismal corner as opposed to Kuvira herself.

"In the year 2525 CE," Kuvira began, "Humanity made its first contact with the Covenant. Soldiers, not so far different from the lot of you, were tested in combat against the new threat."

She allowed the weight of the statement to settle out long enough that the AI's stare had finally receded from the far corner of the room. All attention had finally been earned.

"The gifts I offer now are aligned with redemption towards this threat and the countless lives _wasted_ within the valiant efforts of Preston Cole. Yes, _wasted_, not _spent_ for the righteous betterment of our pious efforts. Your augmentation has fixed the natural flaws of your bodies, and we will soon forget the shame of our defeats."

The eyes of her audience grew intent. Kuvira grasped another opportune stall, pondering over the most appropriate courses to take her speech towards. Her company, after all, did not respond like the swain over-influenced and buzzing heads of civilians. Every word that would leave her lips was grappled and fed into intelligently working minds.

Tasted, debated.

What influence she gave them then would stand with her for the time that they served. Respect was commanded, but lawful opinions and willingness would be another ordeal to conquer.

"Only a diminutive number of you will be staying with me aboard this vessel. The rest of you will be spread thin throughout the UNSC. While the enemy overwhelms us with their numbers, I assure you, each one of you is worth a hundred of our own. The Insurrectionist colonies are falling as a new era of war rises, and each one of you is being called upon as a beacon for humanity."

Raising her arm, Kuvira leveled it above the podium where the smaller radiant being stood, a silent signal of revelation. The AI nodded wordlessly, and the various lights about the room darkened.

At a black circular center a few steps down from the podiums where the two stood, a reflective hologram of an orbital planet was produced.

"Reach," Kuvira introduced, observing with another sweep as the minds of those in her charge were collectively churning with recognition. She placed her hands behind her back, and stood a little more rigidly with what she was about to further present. She was almost startled knocking against the braid down her own back, forgetting that she had not taken it upon herself to more formally put her hair up. It created a brief charge of wariness over how she held up within the eyes of those below her.

Unkempt, rookie, misguided even?

Appearance was not handled lightly. Yet as if she held no reservations about herself in the first place, she continued with her refined tone.

"From here on, this briefing is an eyes-only classification for those who will remain beneath my personal charge. I request that the rest of you step out from the room. Whether or not you will return for an alternative briefing has been undecided. You will wait out into the service hall to be redirected elsewhere. Some of you will even be transferred by tomorrow."

The air of professionalism about the Spartans was jeopardized.

The statement gained reactions of understandable disfavour. Every one of them had grown together, survived together, and worked together since their earliest days, and Kuvira was the one placed into the heavy responsibility of telling them all that they were about to be torn apart.

A hand towards the back was raised. With relative patience, Kuvira gestured to the individual, who stood up and spoke clearly.

"We're a squad as a whole," the female had started, keeping any indignant undertone in careful check. "We've functioned with a high success rate as we are now. We don't work together like other marines. We're _closer_ – there has to be something to that for –."

Kuvira cut her off sternly, as if interrupting a protesting child over a small matter, and reigning her reasoning as supreme under all circumstance. Which, by all means, it was. "Tomorrow at o' five hundred, pelican drop ships will board. I will have a list with your names printed and posted in the following locations –."

"We can section off for certain missions. Petty Officer –."

"_Stand down_."

A more gentle tone pervaded the thickening atmosphere of the room. Heads turned to be greeted by a graying female, regal but kind-sighted. In spite of catering to the armour on her body, her hair remained untainted by the oppression of a helmet.

Kuvira diverted herself into attention. "Major General Suyin is present."

When recognition flowed throughout the group, all stood and saluted at attention, until Suyin eased them down, and they were seated once more.

Behind her, another soldier entered in standard apparel; blue eyes optimistic and brown hair lengthy, arranged in two parting sides along her face and a high pony tail. It made her stand out from the rest harshly.

"Sorry for the unceremonious intrusion," Suyin amended, approaching the podium, and relieving Kuvira of her salute, tugging her away from the seeking eyes of the audience for quick words. "We have another that just boarded in from the last vessel. She's replacing one of your charges, Jason-045. He's going to be transferred with the sub-Beta company on the second pelican out of here."

"Is there any particular reason for this, or is it a standard switch?"

"I'm not entirely sure, to be honest. Some ONI spook came in and started handing out new directives sheets to Lin and her company as well. I know every one of them is uncomfortable being separated out, and as amazing as it would be to hold them all here under our directives, our hands are tied at best."

Kuvira nodded thoughtfully at this, and returned to the stand, switching a tone for something akin to compassion instead of boiling impatience for the reluctance of the super-soldiers before her in order to regain charge.

"I understand your apprehension over the idea of being separated. I've just been informed that there is nothing I can do about the ordeal, and I'm _sorry_ for that. The best you can do at this point is make-do until things become clearer for us all. Orders are orders, and your job is to follow them. If there are no further questions on the situation, I need you all to collectively file out into the hall, except for SPARTAN-five-five-seven, three-four-eight, and four-four-one."

With the dismissal, all stood and proceeded to evacuate, excerpt from the three named. Kuvira motioned them closer to the hologram of Reach, and scrutinized the trio, who stood boldly, and exchanged brief looks upon one another.

One had a rounder nose, and a puppy-doggish demeanor. He might have been intimidating were in not for that factor. The one beside him, however, was similar, but a bit more thinned out and sporting more severe eyebrows. Kuvira checked the list for last names, all of which were redacted. It suddenly seemed expected. Requesting sibling information only seemed out of place for the time being.

She backtracked her attention to the female on the end of the other two, who seemed to lack the disciplined attention of a soldier, let alone a Spartan. The female's eyes roamed around endlessly, like a child who was just introduced to the program and was being given an initial lesson from Doctor Catherine Halsey's Déjà with a complementary side of snacks. There was appreciable wonder when her stare finally rested on Kuvira.

She tried not to let distaste shine through, and instead, prompted a question once the doors to the room were sealed, and Suyin backed off to the side, giving her space for her assignment.

"Do you remember which system Reach resides within?"

"Epsilon Eridani," the thinned male responded.

Kuvira made a mental note to begin addressing them properly; Mako-441.

"Within the inner colonies," the female, Korra-557, added. "Right?"

"Yes." Another wave of her hand, and the AI zoomed in on the atmosphere around the spectacular planet. "It's the UNSC's powerhouse. Twenty-seven hours in a day, and three-hundred and ninety days within a year. The facility that it houses is, by all means, your birthplace. Before the outbreak of the Human-Covenant war, this site was also prime for terrorist bombing from Insurrectionists. Its sister planet, Broker, has been a prime recent target for both the remaining, squandering Insurrectionist forces, and smaller Covenant artillery ships."

She rested her hands on the platform as the image of Reach fizzled away, replaced by the smaller and more ice-dominated form of Broker.

"This information is, again, eyes-only classification. An underground operation is being settled to retake this smaller outer-colony planet. No military housing facilities have been established here, and the population is almost entirely civilian, which gives the UNSC reason to believe that the Covenant certainly has alternative motivations for hovering around its atmosphere. Whether or not they have passed through into landing has not yet been confirmed."

Korra shifted, and furrowed a brow. Bolin-348 seemed entirely intent and focused on the rotating hologram.

Sparing a moment to clear her throat, all three pairs of eyes were fixed on her once more. It was appeasing.

"Too many of our colonies have been jeopardized. Based on my understanding, Spartan forces will be spread throughout various colonies in an attempt to even weakened points within the planetary systems. Whatever the Covenant is looking for – we're going to make sure that they do not get their hands on it. It's insulting enough that members of the human race, the Insurrectionists, are _bartering_ with them on such severe borders." The last point was pressed with more emotion than she intended.

The AI on the smaller podium shot her a look that was a clear warning she was treading on unauthorized data for the ears of her charge, so she altered her course, swiping stray strands of hair back from her face.

"When the rest of the group of Spartans is evacuated from this vessel, our course will be set for Broker, and you will be briefed. Stealth carriers have already penetrated the planet's atmosphere to establish a temporary base, and a majority of your tasks will be fed from Command through radio." Suyin once again approached the podium, and established a hand on Kuvira's shoulder, effortlessly relieving her of the duty to brief while offering the soldiers before them a smile. She could sympathize with all of the sudden information being gifted.

Kuvira dutifully stepped down, taking the documents that Suyin passed to her behind her back.

**CLASSIFIED** read across the folder in dark messy printing. Her palms began to sweat just handling the papers when it became known that the documents were ONI issued, even if the word "classified" was used a bit too freely when it came to their organization. Her gloves thankfully preserved their untainted condition, and the bundled was tucked beneath her arm before she gave a smart salute, and excused herself out the back door.

"Alva, please close the hologram. Open navigation ports, check the docking station, and tell the mess hall to begin preparation for a late dinner." Suyin posed leniently, laying her arms on the podium as she leaned against it.

"Consider it done." The AI regarded her kindly, and blipped off of her own podium, disappearing to complete the assigned tasks as listed.

"Permission for free-speech granted, but not lenient. If you have any questions, now is the time."

Bolin shot his hand up, with Korra quickly in tow.

Suyin jabbed a finger in his direction respectively, awarding the male for his reflex.

"Are all three of us going to the planet? Do we have other reinforcements? Are the other Spartans going to other planets? Are we –."

Her expression dimmed slightly, and Suyin was quick to cut him off, holding true to lackery-lenient speech. "Yes, you will be working as a joint unit, reinforcements are questionable at this point, and that information cannot be released at this moment in time, I suggest avoiding questions similar to it. Korra?"

"I think – he kind of covered what I had in mind, for the most part. I'm not really sure what to ask. We're departing tomorrow?"

"The rest of the Spartans are boarding the Pelicans tomorrow, but we're already close enough to the system that we can slip-space and be there within a few days' time."

After a short pause with no further prompting, Suyin arched a brow, and looked pointedly at Mako, who twisted his expression for a moment, and folded his arms behind his back.

"What part about this is eyes-only? We're the ones going on it, and we're receiving minimal intel. Or the wrong questions are being asked."

"The fact you are going on it is eyes-only classification. We might have a few suspected leaks throughout the lower quadrants that are freeing information to the Insurrectionist rebels. Since each separate mission is crucial to the larger piece, we want to keep as few mishaps as possible. I'm allowing you to ask questions to put rest to an over-worked mind. You've been fed a lot all throughout today. You'll be filled in on the more appropriate details when we hit the orbital drop point of the planet."

Her explanation seemed to satisfy the trio, who exchanged reasoned glances once more, before repairing their posture.

"If that's all for now, then you're dismissed to the mess hall. When the bell sounds at twenty-hundred, check in at the brig. Kuvira will be there to assign you to a bunker and supply you, as well as perform an armoury check. Maybe get you some busy work."

They saluted with no amount of untrained hesitance, and turned to exit towards the door.

Suyin could practically hear the gears in their heads struggling to pull through the sudden drop of events as they padded off to fulfill given duties, no doubt favoured amongst them.

Superbly honed abilities could be set to iron testing in the actual field.

Success, however, was set to trial and error.


	2. Gaining Grounds

"They just plucked you right up?"

"No one was really stopping them. I mean, not adamantly, anyway. A doctor was explaining why they wanted me for the program specifically, since no one else around the area was being selected at all. They mentioned something about it being pertinent that I be isolated as early as possible, and how they still needed to evaluate me on a few things before it was even going to be solid. It was beyond confusing, and at first my parents didn't even agree, but the doctor pulled them in for conversation that I couldn't make out and that was that for me."

"It must've been – I don't know, difficult?" Bolin worried through his choice in words through a mouthful of half salad, and half some kind of meat he wasn't too concerned about identifying. He had even reached over to jab his plastic spork into Mako's slab of meat who, easily enough, seemed to allow the advance on the only meal he had all day.

A few green leaves that had clear origins had to be better than cramming the mystery flesh into his mouth.

Bolin tried beforehand in vain to convince him that it tasted far better than their sense of smell would dare convey. But he wasn't having any of the mediocre ushering.

As if Bolin minded.

Korra was stirring the plastic throughout the mess of potatoes. What had once been whole was thoroughly mashed and spread over a portion of the tray mindlessly. Her healthy appetite failed her for the evening.

"I guess it was difficult. There's a better term for it somewhere. But I was just – so _young_. It's hard to remember what they sounded like now. When they took me up on that dropship, another one of the doctors looked a lot like my mom. I kind of came to associate the woman with her, so my mom's face is a bit more memorable than my father's. They're just kind of fading, and I'm not hugely impacted by it. Not sure if I _should_ be or not." She ended up rolling her shoulders in an uncomfortable shrug, stabbing instead of just churning the meal about.

"I was told I would see them again. That hasn't exactly happened throughout the approaching decade. They stopped contacting me, too."

"I thought every single one of the Spartans here were orphans," Mako interjected, furrowing his brows in the process. Finished with his meal, he was leaning back in his seat, breaking from inspecting the side of his boot to make eye contact with their once-familiar squad mate. Years of separation had them fumbling to catch up on _a lot_.

Fifteen minutes into the extended break of the mess hall, and Bolin was the primary source of conversation overall; a celebratory gesture towards their new status as a unit, and their reunion.

The two couldn't believe how much Korra had progressed and flourished since their first encounter at the initialization facility only a stray planetary system over from their position.

Korra propped open her mouth, expression foreshadowing a bitter remark, when a hum over the intercom interrupted her, blaring into Kuvira's quickly familiar tone. The no-nonsense edge held the room silent.

"Your dinner has been cut short by unforeseen events. All Spartan personnel report to the floor beneath the bridge immediately."

Someone keyed the intercom to confirm that the order was received, and people began filing appropriately to scrap what they had not been able to get to; which was not much.

Food rarely went unappreciated, unless one happened to become emotionally upset by the circumstances of their adoption into a military program, or disgusted by the vague contents of slimy meat.

- - -

The tension in the room was suffocating, condensing.

Korra tugged at the hem of her tanktop, and shifted restlessly on both feet.

Bolin made a quick and discreet joke about the engineers in the hull adjusting the gravitational weight of the ship's solo-orbitals in order to place emphasis on the "gravity of the situation".

As unsociable and inhuman as the Spartans were known to be, the joke offered was found to be incredibly amusing to several of the room's occupants.

When the service doors to the elevator parted, expressions were immediately orderly, and the rows of soldiers saluted to Kuvira, whose attention was primarily focused on a clip board held in her hands.

No one awarded themselves the justification to relax from the salute until Kuvira returned the gesture, and moved to the front of the room, gracing the door they entered in with her presence by standing in front of it.

Her eyes flowed down the board as she spoke, notably urgent but efficient.

Korra had become quick to admire her withstanding ability for addressing people with formal speech in the short time period she had been on the vessel.

Looking to Kuvira with unwavering attention, the glance that was thrown in the youth's direction was hard to miss, and yet Korra found herself fumbling under the severity of those abyss-driven eyes.

There was little wonder why so many bent beneath her charge, even without an outstanding rank.

"Our slipspace coordinates have been compromised by a Covenant vessel _within_ FLEETCOM Sector One. Last visual report was not too far from Tantalus."

The brunette caught her sliding stare from appropriate attention, onto to how the leader's lips moved about in conveying the information.

She took a concerning breath, and redirected her frivolous attention.

"As most of you are aware, this is only a little beyond ten and a half light years from Earth's solar system, and far less so from Reach. Under the exception of Cole Protocol, our position is currently deemed too close to our core world relative locations, and we are authorized to temporarily postpone the exclusion of Spartan forces from this facility and beyond this system."

Kuvira earned herself some slight smiles from various soldiers privately celebrating the postpone of their separation. The primal duty of salvation in the face of a real Covenant threat allowed the atmosphere to retain its heavy influence.

Kuvira stopped roaming her gaze along the clip board, and settled it in one hand, clasping them loosely behind her back as she shifted her weight onto one foot.

Perceptive as the super-soldiers were, many identified the action with thinning patience and a worried mind.

Korra tried to find the wall across from her more dignifying and interesting to _stare_ at. The buzz-cut female who stood in front of said wall only quirked a brow at her, being mistaken for an object of attention as well.

So she traced her eyes along the reflective metal of Kuvira's shoulder pad instead. Effort was placed into recalling the exact scripted order of the Cole Protocol, aside from the generality of being an absolute resort to Humanity's last standing home planet in the face of annihilation at the hands of an advanced race.

The era was progressing so nicely.

When Kuvira stalled, as she often seemed to do throughout her briefing in that particular day, concentrated on the space directly in front of herself, an individual down the line raised a hand to recall her attention. He was given clearance.

"How are we _compromised_? Is the ship trailing us?"

"We don't know yet. There is no visual confirmation, aside from a blip signal in our previous stream. Currently, your departure is still scheduled for later tomorrow or even the next twenty-four hour period, but you will be separating out into two groups instead of the previous assortments, excerpt from the three listed as prime occupants. Admiral Roland requests a certain number of you to be transferred to Tantalus. As soon as this is completed, and we lose the vessel plausibly tracking us, _this_ vessel's path is clear for destination. The lower rankings aboard are not privy to this information. If you share any of this at all, I will have no choice but to report you to a Special Forces branch official."

The statement was ended with a few direct and pointed looks, getting the message across strongly where discretion was needed.

Korra thought, with a smile, that the Lieutenant looked twice at Bolin.

A door down a perpendicular hall opened, and a disheveled Crewman stepped in, frantically looking down the row, and then up it before spotting Kuvira, and rushing towards her, speaking with just as much urgency as his wild eyes offered.

"Lieutenant, they've spotted her heat signature again, a few hundred kilometers from the gas giant. It's advancing."

"Get everyone ready in case we're dogged. Spartans, uniform."

The soldiers buckled into action as immediately as the order was processed, wasting no time moving down the line into the preparation hangar.

Kuvira leaned for the nearest of the trio beneath her charge, ending up with a tight but brief purchase on Korra's forearm. In as much urgency as the rest of the room moved about in, she was tugging the Spartan with surprising brawn towards the Captain's Bridge.

The youthful brunette's brows threatened to hit her hairline. She was a _Spartan_. She could lift three times her extended body weight with minimized effort. Another normal human soldier could throw their whole weight against her, and she would hardly budge.

After her augmentation, she had mistakenly killed an officer who was unfortunate enough to be ordered to spar with her new, uncoordinated abilities.

But there Kuvira was, dragging her along, barking something about the three needing to follow her.

As if realizing her show in commandeering strength, Kuvira snapped her hand away moments after adjusting Korra's walking path, and smoothed her trajectory as she slid past the entrance door to the stairs that led to the Bridge.

Mako and Bolin were both so fiercely on her trail that the shock had to deal with being short lived.

Kuvira punched in a code that parted the doors, and upon stepping out, Korra became awash with contemporary bouts of discomposure and bewilderment.

Every single wall had a screen and one or two occupants that were fiercely working with some sort of coding. The individuals to the left, particularly, were working with a type of more simple calculus. Or, it could have been complex algebra. Korra made a face at being ushered forward by the side of Mako's intrusive foot.

A broader screen stood just past the silver railing that ringed the circular platform of the bridge that the three were led to. It showed stars, a dismal gas giant, and a smaller square percentage specified the fusion reactor and engine status.

So much to take in all at once, certainly for a first time seeing the array in the middle of a potential crisis.

The three saluted the Captain, who was so busy in discussion with Suyin, that he hardly seemed to give fair recognition to their arrival.

Kuvira was not kind or attentive enough to dismiss them immediately from the action, and so they stood at attention for several minutes before the Captain turned in their general direction to address Kuvira, and then, with concentration strained upon a multitude of different things, vaguely dismiss the trio's integrated posture.

Aside from the lowered voices of Suyin and Captain Bataar, Korra could make out the primary engines of the _Zaofu_ sputtering until they slowed down dramatically. Inertia kept them moving forward towards whatever initial direction they had planned for.

"Arm the MAC capacitors, but _do not_ prep them to fire yet." Suyin ordered, nodding Kuvira towards her.

"Permission to speak?" Korra ventured, easing herself up the walkway a bit further.

"Denied."

Well fine then.

She went sour as Suyin fed her Lieutenant with orders for navigation and stealth lines for escaping the heat signature that was advancing on them.

Beside her, Mako and Bolin seemed wholly unable to keep still, within reason.

They were trained to _act_ under pressured circumstances of engagement, not stand there and take notes on the interactions between commissioned officers.

Kuvira seemed just as uncomfortable and shifty, however, in spite of the fact she was being given constructive things to do about the situation at hand.

Wasn't she ground-force, like Suyin?

Korra could sympathize with her in that. It didn't matter how many layers of Titanium-A she was behind, or how far away from Covenant cruisers she was. Up in space was the bottom-line least safe place the female believed she would find herself. Powerful feet on the ground and forces at her back were something she would not trade for all of the smudgy nebulas and endless dark matter in the known universe.

Even water could be fought against, like that on her icy home planet. Its heavy embrace was both condemning and uplifting.

What was she supposed to do with vast nothingness?

Her roaming line of sight promptly became focused on a discreet motioning, and she came to awareness that Kuvira was beckoning with a single quirked finger at her – oh, at all three of them – and they responded in similar segments of awareness by surging forward, eager with what they could do to aid.

"I need you three to run some quick calculations on the coordinates as they appear on the screen. Our "dumb" AI can only run so many figures on the ship. Think of this as a standard evaluation for your potential positions."

Some particular weight was settled on the last two words, causing Korra to press her lips into a line.

Korra was terrible at math. Terrible in the aspect that advanced organic chemistry instructions during her pre-augmentation days with an AI instructor made her want to leap out the window and be put through another treetop obstacle course in a hail storm.

The looks she got from the other two did not suggest that they were anything akin to prodigy either.

So in the least, they offered Kuvira their understanding, and commenced on highly collaborative figuring and re-checking one another's results.

"We've got visual confirmation," one of the second-lieutenants claimed.

Kuvira approached them, and extended the blipmap they were stationed at, tapping on the established location amongst various stars where its dark outline had been spotted.

"Dim the lights. I want a positive classification on it immediately," Suyin approached from behind Kuvira as the latter began zooming in and brushing up clearance, narrowing her eyes to pick out the details of the ship.

Korra dropped from her calculations, making the discreet effort of leaning forward to get a better look at the display.

Across from her, she noticed Bolin's eyes light up the moment he glanced back in her direction from his own gawking of the screen.

Two hands propped themselves down on the sheets that held their calculations, and Korra jerked her head to the side quickly enough to cause a twinge in her neck.

Beside her, a female whose first name read as "Opal" on her tag offered her a charmingly friendly smile, confiscating the pen from Korra's hand while nudging her off with a shoulder.

"Go check it out, I have this for you." 


End file.
